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burritapal_1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
I just finished this book called a planet for rent. It's science fiction short stories, connected by one characterthat shows up in one of the stories, Jowe. It's kind of sad cuz it's in the future where the Earth is just a third world world. Everybody's poor and all the extra terrestrials look down on us and use our planet for a tourist location.
Sex workers are known as social workers. For young women who are poor and have no vocation, it's a way for them to make money. But will be to the young social worker who gets hired by an extraterrestrial, also known as a xenoid.
Body Spares are people who have been sentenced because of some criminal activity. Their bodies are for hire by xenoids. You can be a Body Spare for months, or years.
" some races, such as the Auyars, were biologically incompatible with the terrestrial biosphere. To enjoy the tourist Paradise that the planet had to offer, they had created the system of Body Spares.
All of the parameters of the 'client' ( memory, personality, intelligence quotient, motor skills ) were computer-encoded and then introduced into the brain of a host-human. The xenoid gained both mobility and access to all the skills and memories of the 'spare body.'
There was just one 'minor' detail: 40% of the time, the person whose body and brain were occupied by the Extraterrestrial remained conscious.
That must feel like being a marionette, moved by another's will...
when the process was in its experimental phase, being a 'horse' (a term derived from Voodoo) was voluntary, and almost well-paid. But there weren't enough volunteers anymore, not once it became clear that there could be after effects. Nowadays, the sentence for any criminal offense was a certain number of days, months, or even years in Body Spares.
It was the modern equivalent of Russian Roulette; not all 'riders' took equally good care of their 'horses.' Some tourists pushed them to exhaustion, then simply paid the resulting fine. It was so cheap... many humans lost their minds after being treated that way for five or six weeks. There were even rumors floating around that at Body Spares they tried to get all the spares to lose their minds. A suspiciously ambiguous law stipulated that you only had full civil rights if you enjoyed perfect mental health. Any obligation to return the use of a body to its legitimate owner would automatically vanish if you went schizophrenic."
"Buca" originally "Maria" has been hired by Selshaliman, an insect-looking xenoid, who will take her off-world.
" what would it be like? SelShaliman had told her something..
the ovpositiver stinger, smoothly and painlessly penetrating her vagina to deposit its Precious Cargo in the best protected of human organs, the uterus. It could even be pleasant.
And the eggs, so delicate they could take years to hatch.. and for some girls, they never did. Maybe she'd be lucky, like she's been so far. Or maybe even she could, with some metabolic poison..."
Like so many male authors, this author can't resist talking about men's penises. This story is about a league of ball players, and the Earth team is playing against The League, a xenoid team. He's ruminating for what he's gone through to get where he's at today, at this famous Voxl ball game:
"maybe it'll work. Maybe it'll surprise them.
And all these years of taking synthetic steroids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to transform my metabolism completely, of consuming stress relief drugs and neural stimulus that have driven me all but crazy, haven't been in vain.
And all the aches on rainy days, reminders of the hundred fractures I've accumulated and the two Autoclonings I'd prefer to forget, haven't been in vain.
And all the time I've gone without having an erection that wasn't electronically induced, without a normal girlfriend, without any friends or family other than one voxl team or another, hasn't been in vain."
Do women authors bring up their vaginas this way?
Here's a little titbit of information about history that the author gifted the reader:
"Karolides was a charismatic Greek Statesman who came close to unifying the Balkan Peninsula in the 20th century. If he had succeeded, Germany might never have propelled Europe into World War i. But he was assassinated, the Balkans broke up - and ever since, whenever people talk about political fragmentation, the term they most commonly use is 'balkanization.'
In the unlikely yet conceivable case that a new Karolides should arise among the shareholders of the Planetary Tourism Agency.. everyone knows what fate the true masters of the planet have in store for him. And how quickly it would fall.
Politics is impeccable.
Divide and rule."
Siempre.
One story is about a xenoid, a member of the calossaurs, who is the partner with an earth man, in a art act. In the act, the human is sliced up little by little, with computerized medication ready to anesthetize him, so that he can make it to the end.
After he dies, his partner the callosaur, who he had named Ettu Brute, came to Earth, looking for his child who had no idea she was his child. He had taken her out of a Barrio that was very poor. When he put her back, she found her abuela in worse condition than when she had left.
" The doctor barely glanced under her eyelids before saying, cynically and harshly but without euphemisms, 'Galloping cirrhosis, I'd say. How many bottles a day did she drink? Most likely she won't regain consciousness. You're the granddaughter, right? Well, you choose for her: a week of suffering and expensive drugs, or euthanasia now.'
I chose euthanasia. At the age of 42, my abuela had drunk and lived enough. Now it was my turn. Without her, it would be easier.
Though I didn't know what would become of me. I always knew that a girl born in Barrio 13 doesn't have many options.. but it's harder after seeing everything you're going to lose.
I continued to miss Ettu. I felt it was my fault everything had gone wrong and come to an end. By trying to turn him into a lover, something tangible, I had lost the closest thing to a father or a friend I'd ever had. I didn't really understand why I'd done what I did, why he was what he was.. but I didn't care. I was ready to do anything if it would bring him back.. to follow him on foot to the end of the world, to make his bed every time he finished enjoying his repulsive artists, even to stop asking him anymore questions, ever.
In the hospital, while I was filling out the forms to have my abuela cremated, I found out about the epidemic. And I started putting two and two together.
The magenta illness, the terrible venereal disease of the callosaurs, was wreaking havoc in the artist community. Some 50 of them had died, their flesh covered almost entirely with the purple sores that were the stigma of the disease. The Health Department of Planetary Security couldn't understand the cause of the contagious outbreak that the disease seem to be following and was adopting measures to fight the plague while searching desperately for the illness'es new vector. Because it seemed unlikely that it could have been transmitted by the usual means . . .
even before I heard their names and saw their faces, I already knew who they were. In the final stages of the disease, their faces didn't show much of that satisfaction I'd seen on them when they came downstairs from ettu's bedroom. But they did show the same disgust, and a horrible despair.
Naturally, they never told how they had acquired the disease. They just painted, worked, created like crazy, knowing the end was near. At least they got that much out of the price they'd paid Ettu for their lives and health. And then they died."
mar's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
i'm not entirely sure how i feel abt this book.
on one hand this is an outstanding case of sci-fi as social critique. the biting commentary on the tourism industry, colonialism and capitalism - the very clear allegory to the treatment of Cuba and other third-world countries by the West - is really strong, honest and unflinching. still, its brutality and obsceneness make for a difficult and disturbing read; a lot of it is clearly a purposeful choice, yes, but there were still times when it felt gratuitous, and others when i found it hard to tell just how much of the unpleasant shitty parts was by design and how much might've been the author's prejudices bleeding through.
on one hand this is an outstanding case of sci-fi as social critique. the biting commentary on the tourism industry, colonialism and capitalism - the very clear allegory to the treatment of Cuba and other third-world countries by the West - is really strong, honest and unflinching. still, its brutality and obsceneness make for a difficult and disturbing read; a lot of it is clearly a purposeful choice, yes, but there were still times when it felt gratuitous, and others when i found it hard to tell just how much of the unpleasant shitty parts was by design and how much might've been the author's prejudices bleeding through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, and Slavery
Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Suicide, and Trafficking
gutr0pdstl's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't like how much jargon the author made up to describe the new technology in this post-alien invaded world, and some of it even sounded silly. It may be just because I normally don't read sci-fi. However, I also didn't like how quickly each character's complete backstories were divulged. This is all according to my own personal taste, though.
chamomiledaydreams's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
4.0
"A Planet for Rent" is a disturbing yet fascinating read. I love how the vignettes make sly references to one another, so that the characters' stories can build over time, even when they're not the current protagonist. Ettubrute's arc especially intrigued me, and my opinion of him changed significantly as the novel progressed. It's fun when even your favorite characters have egregious flaws and/or moral deficits.
Not to mention, many of the vignettes have a unique form that reflects the narrative being told. I was struck by the question and answer session whose responses are written out of order. At first, I thought it was done arbitrarily, to force the reader to engage with the text on a deeper and more active level. But there turns out to be an in-universe explanation for this writing choice that made me want to read the vignette over again from the very beginning. The same thing happened with the story about the cops; I finally understood the second-person POV, the pure monologue, and the lack of quotation marks, and it made the story that much better.
I had never heard of Yoss before a friend lent me this book, but now I'm very interested in reading more of his works. If my Spanish were up to par, then I would delight in reading his stories in their original language. Maybe I'll be able to manage that with more confidence someday in the future! But for now, I'm content with the translation I read (although there were a handful of typos that made me think, "A work as good as this should have better proofreading, so the physical text is up to par with the quality of the story being told!").
Yoss's acknowledgements at the end of this novel made me think of the Ursula K. Le Guin quote from her introduction to "The Left Hand of Darkness": science-fiction is often more occupied with describing the present than it is with predicting any sort of future. Although the premise in "A Planet for Rent" is a great SF concept on its own (aliens colonize the Earth, and all humans become second-class citizens in an immense, intergalactic community), each vignette is grounded in reality and features exaggerated versions of things that can and do occur today (albeit in more mundane forms).
Not to mention, many of the vignettes have a unique form that reflects the narrative being told. I was struck by the question and answer session whose responses are written out of order. At first, I thought it was done arbitrarily, to force the reader to engage with the text on a deeper and more active level. But there turns out to be an in-universe explanation for this writing choice that made me want to read the vignette over again from the very beginning. The same thing happened with the story about the cops; I finally understood the second-person POV, the pure monologue, and the lack of quotation marks, and it made the story that much better.
I had never heard of Yoss before a friend lent me this book, but now I'm very interested in reading more of his works. If my Spanish were up to par, then I would delight in reading his stories in their original language. Maybe I'll be able to manage that with more confidence someday in the future! But for now, I'm content with the translation I read (although there were a handful of typos that made me think, "A work as good as this should have better proofreading, so the physical text is up to par with the quality of the story being told!").
Yoss's acknowledgements at the end of this novel made me think of the Ursula K. Le Guin quote from her introduction to "The Left Hand of Darkness": science-fiction is often more occupied with describing the present than it is with predicting any sort of future. Although the premise in "A Planet for Rent" is a great SF concept on its own (aliens colonize the Earth, and all humans become second-class citizens in an immense, intergalactic community), each vignette is grounded in reality and features exaggerated versions of things that can and do occur today (albeit in more mundane forms).
hereforthefunofit's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Wow, so that was a ride and a half. It's a lot to get through and wrap your head around, but it definitely gets easier. It's a decent (definitely accurate) allegory of the entire planet Earth as the colonised, trampled, corrupted and tourist-ran third-world countries some of us have the pleasure of being born in filled with some intricately constructed character-led short stories. As a third worlder myself, I understand and relate to your whole world being people who want to escape, so to get to see every character's journey of escape or attempted escape was really interesting.
Cynically, seeing all of Earth be relegated to third world status was nice for me because I am a contempt-filled towards the Earthly powers that be as the humans of this book are to the xenoids.
TRIGGER WARNING!!
The pedophilia is horrific and absolutely disgusting. I think the normalisation of it is purposeful for the dystopianess of the novel, but jesus christ, it is uncomfortable. So genuine warning for that and other things that may or may not be for the novel or a reflection of the author's opinions: flippant misogyny and dehumanisation of sex workers.
Cynically, seeing all of Earth be relegated to third world status was nice for me because I am a contempt-filled towards the Earthly powers that be as the humans of this book are to the xenoids.
TRIGGER WARNING!!
The pedophilia is horrific and absolutely disgusting. I think the normalisation of it is purposeful for the dystopianess of the novel, but jesus christ, it is uncomfortable. So genuine warning for that and other things that may or may not be for the novel or a reflection of the author's opinions: flippant misogyny and dehumanisation of sex workers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia
s4ufos's review against another edition
4.0
This, like many of the books I’ve read so this year, was required by a class. However, despite the fact that I could have easily looked up its summary, I completed the entire thing and it was good. Better than good. While it didn’t warrant a five star rating (know that I only give those to things I love whole heartedly), it was worth a four. I can see myself picking this up again.
I’ve never read anything like this before in my life and I loved that. It’s all these stories about different people, yet they are somehow connected to each other in small ways. This is definitely the kind of book that makes you think and I would definitely recommend it to people (at least to give it a try).
I’ve never read anything like this before in my life and I loved that. It’s all these stories about different people, yet they are somehow connected to each other in small ways. This is definitely the kind of book that makes you think and I would definitely recommend it to people (at least to give it a try).
theaceofpages's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was a difficult book to rate since it's essentially a book of short stories. I was prepared to give this a low rating when I started, but I ended up enjoying the later stories far more. It starts off with alien sex and performative death, but later we get stories like people trying to escape earth undetected. I actually had to put the book down for a while after Performing Death - by far the most disturbing story in this collection (think a man disassembling himself with nanobots, starting in a weirdly sexual way) because I hated what happened in it. I'm glad I picked it after again because I enjoyed the later stories so much more. (If you hate often misogynistic inter-species alien sex and performative death I would honestly skip to the first story after this one because that's where I actually started enjoying this collection). Both my favourite stories were very close to the end, so it might worth pushing on a bit if you like the concept (maybe skipping chapters since it's not exactly a cohesive story) if you aren't enjoying yourself at the start - the plots becomes more diverse as the book continues (including a sports game that involves spine repair for the constant injuries, people who search through trash to find usable items and building a disguised ship to try leave earth).
While I may be critical of some of the stories Yoss decided to write, I did love the earth he wrote about. I know some other readers have been critical of it, but I can see this kind of scenario being all too believable should an advanced race find us. While I am not all that familiar with it, it is apparently based on Cuba's history. I can definitely recognise elements of how first world countries colonised poorer nations in general and the current dynamics between rich and poor countries in how the xenoids treat humans - basically cheap entertainment while making sure not to lose their power/wealth privilege (please note that this is not talking about individual people but rather the system in this comparison). As to whether I'd recommend this book? I honestly have no idea... I guess if someone asked if they should read it I'd suggest they just move onto the next chapter whenever things get too disturbing and see how it goes from there. While I'm definitely glad that I read this, there are certain parts I could really have done without.
While I may be critical of some of the stories Yoss decided to write, I did love the earth he wrote about. I know some other readers have been critical of it, but I can see this kind of scenario being all too believable should an advanced race find us. While I am not all that familiar with it, it is apparently based on Cuba's history. I can definitely recognise elements of how first world countries colonised poorer nations in general and the current dynamics between rich and poor countries in how the xenoids treat humans - basically cheap entertainment while making sure not to lose their power/wealth privilege (please note that this is not talking about individual people but rather the system in this comparison). As to whether I'd recommend this book? I honestly have no idea... I guess if someone asked if they should read it I'd suggest they just move onto the next chapter whenever things get too disturbing and see how it goes from there. While I'm definitely glad that I read this, there are certain parts I could really have done without.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Infertility, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, and Alcohol
fourwhitetrees's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0